Regent Hotel - Dali — Hotel in Dali City

My wife and I enjoyed a great 24 day China Encounters private tour with Wendy Wu which included a classic week in beautiful Yunnan Province. ||||The hotel that we were scheduled to stay in Dali was changed at the last minute and we ended up in the Regent Hotel instead. “This is the first 5 Star Hotel in Dali” the tour guide proudly informed us and so we were excited. ||||Judging by the absolutely magnificent foyer in this hotel with very lavish and expensive Chinese Jade and elaborate wood carved seats and huge Chinese artefacts throughout, our first impressions suggested that we were set to stay in something really special. Enter our room which I have to say was quite a nice room with a comfortable king bed, writing desk and other facilities and a very clean, modern bathroom including a shower and a plunge bath. ||||However, once you get over the initial gloss, the services left a lot to be desired. ||||The hotel proudly boasts that it has both a western and a Chinese restaurant where guests can choose where they wish to have dinner. We decided it would be nice to try their western restaurant only to be told by the reception staff that the western restaurant is closed, presumably because there may not have been many westerners staying in the hotel.||||So OK, we decided we would go to their Chinese Restaurant instead. This was a very frustrating and challenging experience. We were reassured by the management that there would be an English menu with pictures made available to us to select our dishes. We were given a menu with only Chinese writing which we could not understand and the staff could not understand us either. We would have thought that the staff would have found someone in the hotel who could speak English; however the staff seemed very indifferent to us preferring to give their greater attention to the Chinese guests frequenting the restaurant at the time. That we ended up having quite a nice meal of pork and beef was a miracle in itself. The meal was very well cooked and tasted great. However, that we felt so uncomfortable by the experience was most unfortunate indeed. Being given small paper cups to drink our Pepsi instead of drinking glasses was another sad reflection on the service provided. ||||The hotel also boasted that a lobby bar was open where guests could obtain a drink. However during our stay this too was not available. ||||Our breakfasts on both days were served in the Western Restaurant ironically. We felt that the range of western food available could have and should have been better for a so called 5 star hotel. ||||The hotel has such great potential. However until it improves its services the 5 star rating it claims is...

My wife and I enjoyed a great 24 day China Encounters private tour with Wendy Wu which included a classic week in beautiful Yunnan Province. ||||The hotel that we were scheduled to stay in Dali was changed at the last minute and we ended up in the Regent Hotel instead. “This is the first 5 Star Hotel in Dali” the tour guide proudly informed us and so we were excited. ||||Judging by the absolutely magnificent foyer in this hotel with very lavish and expensive Chinese Jade and elaborate wood carved seats and huge Chinese artefacts throughout, our first impressions suggested that we were set to stay in something really special. Enter our room which I have to say was quite a nice room with a comfortable king bed, writing desk and other facilities and a very clean, modern bathroom including a shower and a plunge bath. ||||However, once you get over the initial gloss, the services left a lot to be desired. ||||The hotel proudly boasts that it has both a western and a Chinese restaurant where guests can choose where they wish to have dinner. We decided it would be nice to try their western restaurant only to be told by the reception staff that the western restaurant is closed, presumably because there may not have been many westerners staying in the hotel.||||So OK, we decided we would go to their Chinese Restaurant instead. This was a very frustrating and challenging experience. We were reassured by the management that there would be an English menu with pictures made available to us to select our dishes. We were given a menu with only Chinese writing which we could not understand and the staff could not understand us either. We would have thought that the staff would have found someone in the hotel who could speak English; however the staff seemed very indifferent to us preferring to give their greater attention to the Chinese guests frequenting the restaurant at the time. That we ended up having quite a nice meal of pork and beef was a miracle in itself. The meal was very well cooked and tasted great. However, that we felt so uncomfortable by the experience was most unfortunate indeed. Being given small paper cups to drink our Pepsi instead of drinking glasses was another sad reflection on the service provided. ||||The hotel also boasted that a lobby bar was open where guests could obtain a drink. However during our stay this too was not available. ||||Our breakfasts on both days were served in the Western Restaurant ironically. We felt that the range of western food available could have and should have been better for a so called 5 star hotel. ||||The hotel has such great potential. However until it improves its services the 5 star rating it claims is...

And I am being generous in the ratings.||||This is another example of a 5 stars hotel that has lost it's glamour and grandeur due to lack of upkeep, maintenance and repairs. I was told by our guide that because of the proximity of hotel to Dali Gucheng (Old Town) they are always full, perhaps explained the hotel attitude whether it is kept top-notched condition or not customers will still come. Which is kind of sad because it can be a beautiful hotel.||Coming into the hotel lobby it is quite grand and spacious and the whole area is adorned with beautiful marbles of all kinds (statues, wall carvings etc) which the city (Dali) is famous for.||But after that everything went downhill.||The room I have was spacious and facing the inner courtyard with lots of trees and unfortunately also plenty of noisy birds. This time of the year air-conditioning is not available, thus have to open all windows to get air circulation and also put up with those noises.||The wear and tear of the hotel really showed in the bathroom. Only after I got in the shower with water running that I discovered the shampoo/bath dispenser was broken and unusable that I had to hurry and grab the only soap bar I saw by the sink without realizing there was a bottle each of shampoo and bath gel hidden in the drawer next to the sink. The photo showed the 2 unused bottles afterwards. The exposed lights above the bathtub were simply unattractive. Shower stall had mildew around edges and unclean.||As for breakfast buffet it was unappetizing to say the least even for Asians and most foods on the warm plates were cold. For many Westerners it probably would be unpalatable and strange.||The wear and tear continue in the hallways upstairs leading to the rooms with old and crumpled carpeting in certain spots.||Would I recommend this hotel? Probably not unless there is no...